Accenture (NYSE:ACN) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Jefferies Financial Group Analyst Says

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) had its price objective lifted by investment analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $355.00 to $385.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "hold" rating on the information technology services provider's stock. Jefferies Financial Group's price target would indicate a potential upside of 5.09% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on ACN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday. Mizuho increased their price objective on Accenture from $352.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. BNP Paribas cut Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Guggenheim boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $380.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Accenture has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $383.23.

Accenture Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ACN traded down $5.79 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $366.37. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,982,683 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,711,833. The stock has a market cap of $229.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $360.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $337.15. Accenture has a one year low of $278.69 and a one year high of $387.51.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.43 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.15 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The firm's revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.74 EPS for the current year.

Accenture declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total value of $170,948.50. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,649,265.25. This represents a 4.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 99.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. 0.07% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Accenture during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Accenture in the third quarter worth $30,000. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 607.1% in the third quarter. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC now owns 99 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Accenture during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Accenture in the 3rd quarter valued at about $51,000. 75.14% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.